Apple made its stance clear regarding those who are thinking about revealing Apple's trade secrets: do it and we'll see you in court. Apple filed a civil lawsuit this week against Jose Lopez for allegedly leaking information about Apple's redesigned Power Mac computers a month before they were introduced. Mac users have always been interested in what Apple is going to release next; however, rumors based on bits of information pieced together and flat out stealing of trade secrets is something different. The Mac Observer has an interesting take on Apple's lawsuits as well.

USER COMMENTS 23 comment(s)

I think mac should win on this ONE(2:19pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)I just think that mac is right you should not steal secrets or Information about your company and then leak it to some one else. That is just wrong and that individual should be punished in some way. – by Brian From Fort

Brian(2:41pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)Actually, the company name is Apple, not mac. Sorry, had to say it. It's a thing that I have. – by -jfinite

Hey Clause(3:45pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)I bet you have a boat load of friends. You could probably keep them as freinds if you didn't keep masturbating in front of them, I mean they are still in grade school. – by MacMurphy

That is why smart people program in Linux, at least they are welcome in that community without money…I am glad to be able to do all on several platforms…– by Bassie.

Conan O'Brien(4:29pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)Hey i am all for telling Clause to shut up but i have to be on his side right now. This guy is not the real Clause he has been posting the same message for 3 days now on all Threads. But none the less it is funny.

On topic i think these guys should be taken out and if apple wants to pay me i will do it.

Crap like this makes my stock go down. then these stupid rumors that go on make my stock go down because they always come up with the most wild ideas and it does not happen then people get pissed. Just let them bring it out when they are ready people. These people that do this shit and support it are the same type of people that tell you the end of a movie right before you see it.

Kill them all – by I know all

lol Bassie(4:31pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)I am unaware of any compilers that are able to interpret the “Linux” language…

Reality check: it takes negligible additional effort to port a Linux app to run on MacOS X.

I am glad to be able to do all that AND run Photoshop on *one* platform :)– by MacJedi

Bassie, you ass…(4:46pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)What the hell do you think Unix is?Do you think it is DOS? NOWhat do you think Linux is, it is UNIX. Man you Linux people need to take your heads out of your Asses.

I am sick of these Linux people that never programmed anything in their lives. But think it is cool to use Linux. If anything you should be yelling at M$ because you are really yelling at your selves, if you yell at Unix.

Also if you cant fork out $100 for an OS then you suck, and you will also never have true apps like Lightwave or Maya, Adobe apps. Anyone can down load free email programs that is all that is left, so in retrospect you are just wasting your time on a OS that use is for nothing but networking, 99% of the world does not want to network Linux boy. – by I KNOW ALL

Hey you dumb f*ck Pro-Mac..(6:08pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)…morons. He didnt STEAL anything, not “Trade secrets” or whatever, he pieced together information from OTHER SOURCES and DREW A CONCLUSION. If you cant tell the difference, then we'll see you on the other side of Big Brother, because yuo will be the downfall of our society. – by TT

By the way, did you ever see Final Fatasy? The entire thing was done on linux! (I know because I bought 4 server racks from them when it was over.)

So go take your head out of your a**!! – by Batman

Back to the Future(8:34pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)Is this the start of yet another Apple Lawsuit Spree? Is the past repeating itself? Now that OS X is out, will Apple start trading in R&D people for lawyers just like in the Good Ol' Days?

People are interested in Apple products and try to piece together information about new products. Wow, what a crime. This impulse to sue is a great way to slow down the momentum Apple has seen.– by SetecAstronomy

Batman(8:57pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)Hey you know it was not free for the app to run in Linux, Internet Tuff Guy, this is my point. You think every thing out there for Linux is free. Not to mention there is really no stability difference in your Linux to Unix. So quit eating your own shit their buddy. I know what I am talking about.

I will also have you know I worked on Final Fantasy, Linux boy the funny thing as much as you want to read about what was used, over 80% was used with NT. To tell you the truth I really don’t remember seeing any Linux. The only Linux that was used was sitting away in a cold room that no one went to. So as much as you want to get your panties in a bunch about this, Linux is not the free system that you think it is. Next time read up on how much companies pay to run Maya on their FREE LINUX OS and you will shit your self.

You here:Only good for networking? PLEASE!!! I must admit, I've heard some pretty stupid comments in my life, but that one takes them all!:Come on, this is not a user friendly system, you can network 200 stanchions together running Maya yah that is cool, and it is a lot better than NT like most 3D houses I worked for use. But that is it.

Now what I was implying not that Linux sucks or anything I never said that it is great, what I said was how could you get so pissed and talk shit about Mac OS X when it is the same thing for the most part, one they say it is free, I laugh at that, the other it costs $100.oo. So if you want to talk shit talk to the M$ people. – by I know all

SetecAstronomy(9:09pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)If you read up on why this guy is getting screwed, he signed papers saying he would not tell, but he had pictures and all specs of the system gave it out. He had an obligation not to tell anyone BY LAW. So quit your bitching people. Same if people were to tell government secrets, you cant do it with out the consequences. How simple is that, any other company would do the same and has. Also Apple being the innovator they are other companies are going to be more inclined to wanting that information. – by I know all

Final Fantasy(10:08pm EST Fri Dec 13 2002)So, you came down here to Honolulu and worked on Final Fantasy, did you? So you never went to the 38th floor where the real work was done? Where they had 40+ racks of 20 blue boxes each one running Red Hat 7.1 with PIII, 768MB Ram and 19.2 GB IBM hard drives, working through central file servers? Huh, wonder why… And yes, I know how much they pay. I've paid that much also to get it running on my boxes. Don't tell me to read up!I never said it was free. And since when did OS X cost $100?!? You just try to get a Mac Box running Maya 4.5 that costs less and out performs a PC I can build myself with Maya and Linux. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!My point is that while OS X is nice and all, it still can't compare to Linux. Not just in the price, but on how many patforms can you install OS X? Uh, right, only one. And linux? Uh, x86, Alpha, PPC, Itanium, Sparc, etc…And don't go assuming that linux users don't crap. Most know more than you will ever hope to know… mr “I know sh**”– by Batman

Batman(3:35am EST Sat Dec 14 2002)We are talking about the OS not Hardware man why would you start bring up hardware all of the sudden. No crap Linux can run on anything so can Unix, but Apple is not going to let it be that way with OS X for now that is.

Now do you honestly know what the benefit would be if Apple were to have Linux instead of Unix on there core. No you don't, and I am not talking about cost here I am talking about performance. Don’t you think they looked into that option? If you read up on it you can find that they did, you will also find their reasons for going for Free BSD than any Linux OS. These are not stupid programmers here that looked into this ether and it was not some business deal while playing golf.

So you really don’t have any argument here because what you are defending is this statement:

“That is why smart people program in Linux, at least they are welcome in that community without money. ”

“What I said was what do you think Linux is it is Unix…”

Try to cop to your mistakes and loses here because now you are just going off for no reason. – by I know all

I know all…(4:54pm EST Sat Dec 14 2002)I hate to be nit-picky, but Unix _doesn't_ run on just anything. That's part of why Linus created Linux. Most of the major flavors of Unix (especially the supported ones) are platform specific (i.e. SPARC, HP-UX, Irix, etc.), not to mention the cost. Furthermore, Linux is NOT Unix. It's close, but to say Linux is Unix is to say that DOS is Unix, or Windows is MacOS. Yes, one was derived, in some part, from the other, but they're now their own separate OSs. If you break it down into what really matters (i.e. the Kernel), you see vast differences.Beyond that, I find most of your argument somewhat incoherent. You use arguments that prove nothing (i.e. the “What do you think UNIX is?” argument) and make some blatantly wrong statements, most specifically: “so in retrospect you are just wasting your time on a OS that use is for nothing but networking, 99% of the world does not want to network Linux boy.”I'm not sure where you're getting you're news (maybe TheOnion.com) because the rest of us have been watching major corporations, like Dell and HP, taking more and more interest in the Linux world. Furthermore, if Linux is so unwanted, why did one of the largest UNIX companies (Sun) create a distro? The point of Linux has always been to provide all the functionality and stability of the UNIX environment on a x86 platform. Linux upset several corporations because it broke their UNIX monopoly and made all the functionality and stability available for free.(continued next post) – by DamionFury

continued(4:55pm EST Sat Dec 14 2002)Do you know the REAL reasons many corporations don't adopt Linux with haste? Support and standards. Those are the current downfall of the Linux world right now. That's why Sun is still able to compete with its distro and why Red Hat is able to remain a publicly traded corporation. Corporations want to know that if their servers go down, they'll be able to call someone and get it online quickly. That's all that holds Linux back. Furthermore, if Linux weren't such a force in the corporate world, why would there be ports of so many major software packages to it?Bottomline: Linux IS free, MacOS X isn't. I may have to spend money to get the functionality I need (on BOTH OSs), but Linux is still free and most of what I need cost less there too.

Nonetheless, since I know you aren't interested in a reasoned argument, feel free to start your childish flaming.– by DamionFury

WTF is this lawsuit about(6:06pm EST Sat Dec 14 2002)since when does drawing a conclusion violate the law? What trade secrets are they refering to? I can say Apple will release the G17 in christmas 2004 but does that mean they can sue me if i'm right?

fucking lawsuits – by :P

DamionFury(10:32pm EST Sat Dec 14 2002)Hey, I am not yelling at you just stating my mind. First off Linux is so similar to Unix it is unbelievable. All I do all day is write code for Linux and Unix and I really can’t find that much of a difference. What I think this I KNOW ALL guy was getting to, was that there was really no point in Bassie argument. There isn’t really a speed improvement in ether system at all or Stability, because they are so much the same, Yes Linux can run on just about anything and so could Unix if you wanted it to, anything could. Apple does not want that, they don’t make any money off of software it is all hardware. So if anything you people should talk shit about the hardware because the OS is so almost the same thing as Linux. Also the hardware is great it is just that damn processor. One last thing, I am sick of hering Linux people talking shit about OSX when it should be M$ they are going off on. – by Linux/Unix Programer

OS X vs Linux(2:00am EST Sun Dec 15 2002)Any linux person who talks sh** about OS X as an operating system must have mental problems. OS X as an operating system is great. But like wise, the ignorant OS X users who rip on Linux & Linux users are exactly that: ignorant! I agree 100% the processor needs work. Or better yet, it needs a different one all together! But that is the problem. While OS X is nice, it only runs on Apple's computers. Yeah they would never port it to x86 and market it against M$. That would be stupid. But why spend all the extra $$ for a nice OS that only runs on technology that is out-dated when you could do almost all the same stuff on a cheaper linux box? Not only is the os cheaper (free), the hardware is cheaper and faster! Apple—> Please get a new processor that will out perform a Dual Xeon 2.8 Ghz! Opteron maybe? (yeah right, only in my wildest dreams!)Yes, we all should be going off on M$. But to be truthful, I don't really take the time to think about M$. Why should I? I figure: the further they are from my mind, the better! – by Batman

EVERYONE (BATMAN AND I KNOW ALL TOO)(1:26am EST Mon Dec 16 2002)Apples' MAC OS X is BSD, which I find to be really easy to program for vs Linux (although I do like redhat). Its amazing how nothing is perfect or it would be the only choice, huh? BTW, when you work for a corporation like Apple, you sign a non-disclosure agreement. If Jose Lopez has violated that, he has given his employer's competitors a dangerous edge and endengared all of his co-workers job security. But, I really don't think he has done this, but a decent jury will decide. – by schitzoztihcs

Pointless one sided babble does not make you a tech know-it-all, and I highly doubt that the people who run this site get their articles from what kids like you who have hissy fits over what “sucks” or is “kewl”

The article is about Apple suing an asshole who let out secrets. Spouting your crap knowledge, or should I say lack-there-of about BSD Unix conributes nothing to the general topic. If you really want to bitch about something, bitch about why Apple chose to use the arcaic Mach kernal, something that is about a dozen years old in their “next gen” OS.

– by JB

re: JB(10:55am EST Mon Dec 16 2002)Ten to one “I Know All” is just Lord Ross again, and I think the closest he came to working on Final Fantasy was watching it in the theater.

On a side note, I think Apple may be sueing because their deep secrets really amounted to a new case design and that the new G4's were going to be all dual. And the dual thang was mainly to hide how slow the processors are rather than anything spiffy new.

Personally I think Apple has literally dug their own hole by having insisted Motorola use Apple's proprietary bus, which Motorola said fuggedaboutit to. So now we have Apple's running on overclocked 1.25Ghz G4's as opposed to the 2Ghz G5's that were being tested early this year. Spiffo! – by Ziwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwi

I honestly have no clue as to what Apple is ultimately going to do about their processors. And what has yet to come from this whole OS X on AMD rumor? Maybe 2003 is the year that Apple drops out of computer making and kicks into full digital devices and Operating System? Who knows for sure. But it'll definately be an interesting story to see unfold.